Real-World Case Studies

Examining actual social engineering attacks provides valuable insights:

The Target Breach (2013): Attackers compromised an HVAC vendor through phishing, then used stolen credentials to access Target's network. The breach affected 40 million credit cards and 70 million customer records, costing Target over $200 million.

The Twitter Bitcoin Scam (2020): Attackers used social engineering to compromise Twitter employee accounts, gaining access to internal tools. They then hijacked high-profile accounts to promote a cryptocurrency scam, demonstrating how insider access can be exploited.

Ubiquiti Networks (2015): Fraudsters impersonated executives and convinced finance staff to transfer $46.7 million to overseas accounts. This business email compromise attack highlighted vulnerabilities in financial controls.